The Death of JG Ballard Considered Simply as Death

JG Ballard has left the planet.

Three writers shaped my world view: William S. Burroughs, Philip K. Dick and J.G. Ballard. Now they are all gone.

Ballard's ability to envision the heart of human suffering in the landscapes of the modern world was unparalleled. He let us see pain and loss in empty swimming pools and dusty bunkers, in rusted rocket gantries and decaying highways. Inner and outer spaces, private and public, were laid out by Ballard with surgical precision.

We have to be very grateful that we had a writer like J.G. Ballard, that he came and did the work he did and left us not just with pages of words but with more precise tools and abilities to understand our world. Ballard was a scientist of literature and the human condition.

We're gonna miss him a lot.

[If you have time, please visit Rick McGrath's outstanding website devoted to Ballard. It is a tremendous work and well worth your time. I stole the cover scan above from it.]